I had a long day as catering staff at the birthday event at the Frank Lloyd Wright house, in kirkwood! It was hot outside and I came home feeling gross and tired. 

I had most of a bottle of cold white wine left from last night, so we opened it up and started a new Netflix series called 'Sense8.'

The bottle LosVascos Sauvignon Blanc 2013 

The taste- acidic, grapefruit, pear, and a nice mineral. Very easy and clean drinking. 

I'd say drink alone or would pair well with a salad, white fish or vegetables. 

Love the wine! Would buy again! 

Tv show, enjoyed, will watch more! 

-claire

tortilla soup

it's been a whole month since we moved. we found a great apartment, within a block of a great walking/running park!

We have not had food in the house and we hadn't done real grocery shopping in a month.

we usually set our meals for the week and shop for those meals. it helps save money and we don't waste as much food.

i received some great cook books from my bridal showers and it was time to start putting them to use. we were getting sick of eating out, so last night i prepared our first homemade meal since we moved. Tortilla soup!

wedding invites

Ron worked so hard and so long on designing our wedding invitations! i am really proud of him and i really enjoy all the thought and humor he put into them! We hope you like them!

we had a great time at our friends, Dan and Les, ' screenprinting our invitations. yes, i did pull several screens myself, all the nice and even ones are mine. ha! we are so grateful to Dan for his time and patience, with us! we would not have gotten it done so quick without his expertise!

Thanks to my sister, Holly and her nice handwriting, all the labels got printed! My handwriting does not even pass my own standards! we apparently picked the right person, in grade school, Holly was picked by the class to write the letter to the president! phew! i'm glad for those credentials!

After talking to Ron and some tough decisions on stamps for the mailing, i went outside to my car and started feverishly sticking them (and labels, and stickers to close the envelope) on the invite. I thought the post office closed at 5, and only had 15 mins to get as much as i could done. i was startled by someone honking at me and realized it was my sister, Beth. She informed me the post office was open til 6, which bought me more time. after she came back out of the post office, she got in my car to help me stick and stamp! Thanks to her, we got them all done.

This makes it official, right!?

We are so excited and can't wait to celebrate with all of our amazing friends and family!

House Hunting

Ron and i having been house hunting for the past couple of months. We've been looking online for a while, but it is nice to see what is really out there.

We are lucky that the housing market is so bad right now, just great for first time buyers! There have been some great homes that have fallen into our price range, but one wrong thing can make the house not right. We are liking a house that has no dining room, and i love to entertain. i can't imagine never being able to have people over for dinner.

There are so many choices out there right now, i can't wait to see what we choose.

Easter Egg-cellence

Ron and i split a fun evening of egg dyeing and eggs-perimenting!

(my attempt at taping off, for the zig zag effect)

(my use of two colors, trying to keep the white clean! the other side was crying.)

(HULK! ron was working on marvel characters.)

(THE THING! this was looking so good and then the egg took a fall!

as you can see there were other attempts to try again!)

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Yay! Today is Claire's Birthday! We are going to the park and all the terrible rain we heard about has apparently been chased away! Happy Birthday, Claire!!!

I Love YOU! XOXOXO

The Royale 'SPLIT'

Look William and Kate like to split too!

Valentine's Day 2011

This is the Valentine i received from Ron this year! He really likes puns!

shepherd's pie

(this is the picture from the original recipe,

for more recipes, go to goveg.com)

since ron liked it so much, i decided to share the recipe.
i went off a recipe for veggie shepherds pie and we decided to add sweet potatoes with the regular potatoes.
boil 4 med potatoes,( diced) til tender. drain, and mash with 2 Tbsp. butter and up to 1/2 c. milk (or soy substitute for both if you are vegan)add salt and pepper to taste.
in a separate bowl combine:
-12oz bag of veggie meat (read label if you are vegan)
-1 can vegetarian mushroom gravy (i would use half, then mix in more until you get the consistency you want. we used the whole can and ours was soupy, but still delicious)
-1 small can mixed peas and carrots, drained (i just sauteed some carrots til tender and then added frozen peas till heated)
-the recipe didn't call for it, but i sauteed up 1 med diced onion, and 5 or 6 mushrooms sliced.
-season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper, to taste (i would start with 1/2 tsp each, or more to taste)
pour "meat" mixture into pie pan or baking dish, top with potatoes, spread to edge of pan. bake at 350 til potatoes are browned (30-40) minutes.

Moroccan Couscous stew

i signed up for recipematcher.com a while ago, but this is the first time i've used it.

you sign in,

go through the epantry and check off what food you have in your kitchen,

then it generates recipes for you, by the ingredients you have, and

gives you a list of what you need to buy.

tonight:

Moroccan-Couscous-Stew-crockpot-Recipe

(before i added the couscous and chickpeas)

i followed this recipe, but added 1/4 cup golden raisins, 1/4 cup mushrooms, 1/2 tsp coriander, a half cup of frozen peas chopped up some stewed tomatoes (in addition to crushed), and used Quorn brand "chicken" tenders, instead of real chicken. i added the extras from looking over other moroccan stew recipes and whatever i had in my pantry.

it smells amazing and i've been tasting it as it's cooking in the crock pot, and it tastes fantastic.

Meet Cute

October 1, 2010 - Ron and i celebrated our 6 year Meet Cute.

We met at The Rubber Frame: Culture and Comics show at Des Lee Gallery.

He was the boy in the room with Buddy Holly glasses and chuck taylors. My friends, Barbara and Martha knew him from the art museum world. They went to talk to him and i came over to meet him and then ran off. After the art show, Tom Huck, a printmaking professor, was having a party upstairs and we all went. i pulled Ron onto the dance floor and was excited he could dance.

After that evening, Ron and i hung out for the next month, but i wasn't sure if i liked him as more than just friends.

It wasn't until Nov. 28, 2004, when Barbara and i had our ornament making party to decorate our Christmas tree, that i knew i had feelings for Ron. i hadn't seen him in a month or so and decided to call him to come to the party.

It took us over a month to go on our official first date on January 17, 2005.

For our 6 year meet cute anniversary, we went to the Sam Fox School of Art faculty art show

on Oct. 1 at the Des Lee Gallery.

i am sharing some photos of Ron and i, having an amazing time together, over the years!

(note: all 2006-o7 photos are on the hard drive of the old computer)

feb 13, 2010 - I "heart" Ron

feb 13, 2010- I "heart" claire

nov 3, 2009 - candy corn fangs

oct 25,2009- zombies

May 11,2009- phun with photo booth

Feb 14, 2009 -sharing pie from the Sugaree bakery!

Dec 15, 2008- my stocking is bigger than yours!

Dec 4, 2008 - a rare photo of ron smiling!

Dec 4, 2008 - secret kiss

october 30, 2008 - discovering photo booth

Nov 29, 2005 - just goofing around

Oct 21, 2005 - Kimmswick High Art Club Reunion

july 4, 2005 - rooftop of Erato Winebar

Ron's birthday

Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010

While everyone was in town for Loufest, we had them over to celebrate Ron's birthday, and

eat some cake!!

(the cake: dairy queen Reese's cup ice cream cake)

("Happy Birthday, Dear Ron!")

(blow out the candles, and make a wish)

(oh look, his wish came true. ME!!)

(LtoR: Randy, Holly, Robert, Kara, Brooke , Mikey, Alice, Beth, Ron, Claire, Tom)

(not pictured, Barbara and Dave )

Mon. Aug, 30, 2010

Ron took the day off for his birthday. Besides ice cream cake, second birthday request was

Laclede's Landing Wax Museum. Barbara, Dave, Leslie, and Dan came along for the adventure!

the wax figures needed a little dusting, and trying to figure out who they were, was fun, but

that is definitely the charm of the place. Can you gues who we saw?

(galaxy defenders. CLAP! CLAP!)

("i think we're getting scammed by a kindergartener")

("Come to this side of the table if you want to be in the picture!")

"Nobody puts Baby in the corner")

(a smooth criminal)

Burger Bar

(chocolate burger: chocolate patty, mint lettuce, strawberry tomatoes, kiwi pickles, orange fruit leather cheese, strawberry sauce ketchup,

whipped cream mayo = delicious!)

Cielo (sky) Bar at the Four Seasons

(claire, Ron)

(Dave, Barbara. what a sexy, hair blowing in the wind shot)

(leslie, dan)

(the olympic torch)

(Dan, Leslie, Claire, Ron, Barbara, Dave)

(Dan gets air)

(birthday boy at the end of a long day)

someone needs a haircut!